Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

10 Steve vaulted the rail, and he was stiiiggling to regain poss-essioii of the proof, when Peter dived in from the street, stared, and cried out: "Steve! Steve, the autopsy shows tl)at Herkimer was murdered I" "What?" gasped Mary Lou; and Steve let go of the reporter in amazement, while Howard blankly nuittercd : "Murdered ?" "Yes," said Peter. "Then what's this?" howled the reporter, producing the criunpled proof which no longer was of any value to him,, or anyone else. "Its—it's just a gag,", said Steve, recover- ing his wits. "A gag to fool you City reporters." "Why, vou double-crossing—you—you jour- nalist!'"' stuttered the rejjorter, and he made himself scarce. "Then her confession was on the level? asked Howard. . "Not a chance." Peter shook his head. He was killed all right, but Molly didn't do it. We found out that his back was broken. The silence of dismay that followed was broken by Steve. "Well, Ve wanted a murder mystery, he growled, " and it sure looks like we have one now!" ■ 1 • o» "And what are we going to do with it? Peter wanted to know. . "Find the real killer," said Mary Lou with- out a moment's hesitation. "Without a clue to work on? "groaned Howard. , a c "One clue—those marks on the floor ot Horkiiner's hay-loft." „ , ,. "Oh, Mary Lou." admonished Steve, don t start harping on that again!" "Have you anything better to offer? she cliallenged. " No—but " "Then find soiuethiiig. Ami while you re groping around I'll investigate my hunch !" She wont out into the street, just as she was. without any hat or coat, and she made straight for the premises of Henry Barton. The place >vas full of crates and boxes and bales and packages, but Heniy Barton was out. His stalwart assistant. Kddie Dawson, was around, however, and she tried to ex- plain to him the sort of thing Ihat might have made the marks in the hay-loft. She drew a little diagram on a scrap of paper and showed it to hini. "There, that's the kind of a design I mean, Eddie," she said. "Gee, Miss Carroll, that's a new one on me." grunted the assistant, scratching the ba'k of his hullneck. "We got a lotta boxes hero with lifts, or cleats, to keep 'em dry, but not that kind." Mary Lou was disapiiomted, but murmured thanks. "Why don't you come back later and ask Mr. Barton?" Eddie suggested. "When will he be back?" she asked. "1 don't know. He had a couple o' de- liveries to make—one of 'em half-way to Glenwood." "I see. Well, perhaps I will drop back.' She turned to thread her way between stacks of crates to the entrance, but, her skirt became caught on a nail that projected from a large wooden case and the skirt was torn a little before she could stop and free it. Kddie hastened to her as.^istance, but arrived too late. "It's all right," she said. "It's ju.st a snag." . . "I've been meaiiin' to knock that nail in for al)Out six inoii.hs," said Eddie, and he picked up a liaunuer and used it, tilting the box to as>ault the nail. Mary Lou's grey-green eyes became very round. "Kddie!" she cried. "There, that s the kind of a cleat I meant! The exact pat- tern !" , , • Acro.ss each end of the bottom of the case a strip of wood was nailed, and fastened to corresponding strips on the sides of the box by means of angle-irons, the surface of which were not flat, or rounded, but had a ridge. '• I'll be darned 1" exploded Eddie. "Where did this box come from?" asked Marv Lou. Jaiiuary 20th, 1940. BOY'S CINEMA " I don't know. I guess the address was on the lid." "Whore would the lid be?" "Oh, chopped up for firewood, probably. This old rubbish-box has been around here for a long time." The name of the makers of the box was stencilled on its sides and a number was with the name. Marv Lou copied down the de- tails: "724 A. ' Oneida Box Co., Chicago, Illinois." She returned to the printing works to find only Pi Kelly there, and in the front oflice she sat down at the table to ring up the Oneida Box Company. It was a long- distance call, and it led to several other long- distance calls, all of which she listed on a pad. She was waiting for what proved to bo the last of the calls when Steve, Peter and Howard streamed in at the door. "Well, where have you been?" she called across to them. "The Herkimer place," replied Peter. "Looking for clues," said Steve. "And, in case you're interested," added Howard, "we found a glorious nothing." They followed one another in at the little gate in the rail, and Peter wanted to know whom she was calling. "The Mid-Western Silk Company, Chicago," she replied serenely. "The INIid-Western what?" cried Steve. "Silk Company. They buy all their ship- ping cases from the Oneida Box Company. I'm trying to find out if Hallo?" The conversation which ensued was not in- telligible to the three young men because they heard only Mary Lou's side of it, but they saw her eyes become brighter and brighter and the hand that held the receiver become more and more shaky. "Why all the excitement?" demanded Peter, as she hung up. "Who'll pay the bill?" asked Steve, who had taken a good look at the list. "Oh, boys!" exulted Mary Lou. "Listen, a week before Herkimer was killed twelve cases of silk disappeared from a motortruck some place between Greenbrier and Glen- wood." "Say," breathed Steve, "that's right near here !" "A real clue to work on!" exclaimed Howard. "Exactly." agreed Marv Lou. "They were the same kind of ca.ses that left impressions on the floor in Herkimer's hay-loft!" "But those marks indicated only six cases," Steve remembered. "Six on the floor and six on top of them !" she cried. "That's why the marks were so deep." "What a brain—what a girl!" enthused Howard. "That's where Herkimer got his booze money," deducted Peter, "using his barn for a hideout for stolen goods." "Now, if we could only find out who Her- kimer's buddies were " began Steve. But Mary Lou had thought about that, too, and she said immediately : "Marty Collins might know. He-used to spend a lot of his time at the farm with Molly." Steve grabbed the telephone, and he rang up the Star Pool Boom, a resort in Cross Street. Martin Collins was playing pool at one of the tables with Henry Barton, a man named Plank Wright, and a heavy-weight giant of a fellow named Joe Mullins, when an attendant called across from a wall- instrument that Collins was wanted "on the line " Collins took a sliot before he answered the call, but after ho had answered it he returned to the game looking worried. . "Your shot," said Hank Wright; but Col- lins drew Henry Barton asid(>. "Tliat was Sieve Ijcwis," he confided. "PL^'s found out there was stolen silk in Herkimer's barn." "What's he calling you for?" asked Barton sharply. "He asked me to go over and see him. Ho thought I might know something about who put it there." "But you don't know!" It was as much Every Tuesday llueat as statement, and Barton's exiJiossion" was anything but genial as he uttered it. "No, I don't know nothin'," said Collins. "Then whj' don't you go on up and sc& him?" Collins nodded. He was in his shirtsleeves, and his coat was on a chair. He picked up the coat and was putting it on when th© voice of a newsboy in the street caused him to stop short. "Extry!" the boy was shouting. "Extry! Herkimer murdered 1 Read all about it I Extry!" Collins blinked at Barton, Mullins stared at both of them, and then the newsboy in- vaded the pool-room and went from one table to another, still shouting in the intervals of selling copies of the "Bee-Clarion" to thoso who were curious enough to buy. Barton ac- quired a copy, and^ Collins looked at it over his shoulder, his coat half-ou and half-off. "So the old boy was murdered!" he blurted. "Shut up!" hissed Barton. "Joe, put a nickel in the music-box." Joe Mullins went to a tall machine and inserted a coin in its slot, and it was no mean tinkle that issued from the thing, but a more or less musical noise loud enough to drown any quiet conversation in its vicinity. Collins was marched over to Mullins, and Henry Barton said grimly : "I want to talk to you." "I don't understand," muttered Collins. "I'll explain it to you." Ten minutes afterward.s. Collins boarded a luxuriously fitted long-distance bus at a stopi)ing-place in the West Road. "How soon do you leave?" ho said to tho conductor. ""Three forty-five." The conductor looked at his watch. "Right now." CAUQHT! AS Collins did not call to see Steve within half an hour of the telephone call, Steve went out to find Collins. "rhe others waited impatiently for nearly three-quarters of an hour, and then he returned to report failure. His face, however, suggested that he regarded failure more or less as success. "Joe Malone saw him catching a bus for Indianapolis," he said. "I'm going after him." "I'll go with you," said Peter. "So will I," said Howard. Peter's offer was accepted, but not Howard's. "You stay here," Steve said to him. "Wo may not get back in time for morning session of court." Mary Lou suggested that she should ring lip the Indianapolis police, but Stove would not hear of that. "One flash of a uniform." he said, "and Marty would freeze up tight." "Then how are you going to find him In a city that size?" she woijdered. "His landlady told me ho has a sister there —name of Murray." Peter screwed up his face. "We"ro going to call on all the Minrays in Indianapolis?" "That's right." responded Steve -quite calmly, "till we find tho right one. Honey, you run the paper. Howard, you stall that trial all you can." "I will," promised Howard. "We'll take care of overything," declared Mary Lou. "But let us know how you inako out. Keep in touch with us." Steve and Peter set off in the two-seater for a city that was nearly sixty miles away and contained more than half a million in- iiabitants and probably at least a hundred people named Murray". Nothing more wiis heard of them that night, and at ton o'clock next morning the adjourned hearing of Molly Herkimer's trial was resiimed. Ojiening speeches were made, evidence was given, and Tucker Tyler had Martin CJollins called as one of his own witnesses. But the name of Martin Collins was called in vain, not only in the court-room but all over the building. Tucker Tyler then demanded that a bench warrant bo issued for the missing witness, but the judge knew Martin Collins and told